Interviews

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

GameSpy: We see that Matthias is back from the first one. Who else is making a return from the original?

Chris, Jen, Mattias and Fiona are all making return appearances from the original Mercenaries. This time around we've pumped up their visual appearances considerably and made them much more interesting characters all around. In Mercs 2 you'll find character development to have taken a considerable step forward since our previous game. Wanting to find out more about the mercs was something we heard loud and clear from fans of the first game.

GameSpy: In the previous game, which was published by LucasArts, there were a lot of inside Lucas jokes, such as Han Solo and Indiana Jones as unlockable characters. Now that EA's the publisher, do you have any plans to unveil any EA-centric characters or any good-natured inside jokes regarding the change in publishers?

It's certainly in the cards. Many of the Mercs 2 developers are big fans of including popular video game staples into the game and Easter Egg-style pop culture references. Kudos to those of you who figured out what we were talking about in Mercs with the Science Fiction RTS being a Korean "national treasure!"

GameSpy: Besides the intense hands-on destructibility of environments in the first Mercenaries, air strikes were a big part of the experience. What can we expect from next-gen airstrikes, such as new techniques?

In addition to a robust tuning pass and next gen particle effects overhaul on the air strikes we've got a number of great new air strikes for you to use. For example, there's the Daisy Cutter, an air strike largely dedicated to clearing out large sections of foliage so the player can deliver in vehicles and weapons to use. The foliage destructibility feels great and this was a fun way to play into that.

GameSpy: Will we see a return to the "deck of cards" that defined the first game, or do you have something else up your sleeve for compiling enemy importance and captures?

In Mercs 2 the concept of capture or kill has returned intact but this time around we're not associating it with a deck of cards. There are dozens of bounties available in the game, from some of the main story beat enemies, to lists of important VIPs provided to you by the factions; there are plenty of capture or kill options for you to chose from.

GameSpy: What can PS2 owners who've hesitated to buy a next-gen system expect from their Mercenaries 2 experience? Will they get something that feels more like the previous game, or have you taken steps to create a "mini next-gen" game? Will they get co-op over PS2 online?

Mercenaries 2 for the PS2 is, in many ways, very similar to Mercs 2 for the next-gen consoles. That said, the goal was to build the best PS2 experience possible, and the only restriction we put on the team in developing it was that they had to keep the same storyline. We're going to have the boats, the swimming, the new action hijacks, the upgraded physics, the new world, the characters, the story, and so on. At the same time, however, the experience is going to feel new and fresh. Each mission and feature was developed from scratch to capitalize on the specific strengths of the PS2 hardware. And nearly all of the side quests were custom designed and built only for the PS2. A true fan of the first Mercenaries will want to play both the next-gen game and Mercenaries 2 for the PS2.